Friday, May 27, 2011

Fairweather Blogging

So this is what it must feel like to be a Royals blogger. Or a Pirates blogger. Or a Nationals blogger. For my generation of Twins fans, sustained stretches of losing haven't been a part of our baseball experience since our middle school and early high school years, before most kids are very interested in keeping up with the team on a daily basis, let alone trying to do advanced statistical analysis. This type of losing is something we haven't seen in over a decade, and it's frankly getting hard to watch. I have no desire to be a fairweather fan, and still care a great deal about this team, but as a blogger, there's not much left to say that hasn't been said already about the atrocious start to the season. I'm not trying to make excuses for the lack of content around here lately, but the reality is that my energy level for churning out Twins-related posts has taken a dive along with the team's record.

Does this make me a fairweather blogger? Does my lack of enthusiasm for churning out 1,000 words about why the Twins have somehow managed to have both the worst offense and worst pitching staff in baseball mean that I'm failing in my duty to the Twins blogosphere? Should I add another to the long line of "what's wrong with [insert name of almost any Twins player here]?" posts? What about a feature on the Marvelous Imploding Bullpen? (Worth their weight in negative WAR! Able to blow huge leads in a single inning!) This feeling serves to solidify the respect I have for those people who have kept up blogs for losing teams even when it didn't appear that there was much light at the end of the tunnel. For the Royals, that light may be fast approaching. For other teams like the aforementioned Pirates and Nationals, the future maybe doesn't look quite so bright, but both are playing better baseball than the Twins at the moment. My point is that I'm getting a good sense of the dedication that it takes to write about a team that seems to be making mistake after mistake, each one compounding the next.

The situation in Minnesota for the future isn't necessarily all gloom and doom. There should be a good chunk of money coming off the books next year, Target Field should continue to provide a good revenue stream (although that shouldn't be taken for granted given the current quality of the on-field product), and the farm system has at least some glimmers of impact talent. However, the front office will certainly need to start making better personnel decision than the ones that contributed to this predicament in the first place (perhaps most notably sapping the organization of depth at middle infield and catcher), and if it gets to the point where we're looking at a firesale come July, it will need to be managed in a way that isn't getting pennies on the dollar in return. Potential changes using in-house options and teams that make logical trade partners are certainly worthy topics for posts in and of themselves, and I'm sure that at some point I'll be able to muster up some analytical willpower to try and produce some constructive suggestions for how to move this team forward. I just don't think that point is now. I'm headed to Target Field to see the Twins take on the Rangers on June 9th, and I have no doubt that I will enjoy every minute of it. I hope I'm not a fairweather fan, but bear with me as I figure out what it means to not be a fairweather blogger.